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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29219031">Science Fair + Genius + Gunshot Wound</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gretti_writes/pseuds/Gretti_writes'>Gretti_writes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump 2021 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MacGyver (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Episode 05x04, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, episode rewrite</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:21:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,570</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29219031</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gretti_writes/pseuds/Gretti_writes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A slight re-write of episode 05x04. Bozer joins Matty and Russ at the science fair to meet Eli.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump 2021 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140011</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Science Fair + Genius + Gunshot Wound</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Febuwhump Day 5 - Prompt 'Take me instead'.</p><p>Not beta'd so all mistakes are my own!!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>‘Please take me instead’, Mac whispers conspiratorially.</p><p>Matty just looks at him with disdain.</p><p>‘I know full well that you are due to meet Desi’s parents. Don’t think I’m going to get you out of that. I’m going to the science fair with Russ and Bozer. Be your charming self, just don’t tell them what you do for a living or you’ll be in a black site quicker than you can say paperclips’, Matty replies. ‘Now, off you go. We’ve got places to be’.</p><p>‘Yes, Ma’am’. Mac mock salutes and hares out of the room.</p><p>‘So Matty, who are we going to see?’ Bozer asks, as Russ joins them in the war room.</p><p>‘His name is ­­Eli Brown. According to Matty, he’s a genius who has been expelled from his last six schools, but we’ll gloss over that’, Russ answers.</p><p>‘Thank you’, Matty says with sarcasm. ‘He’s got a complicated past, makes him a perfect recruit for the Phoenix’.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>MacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJack</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Perfect recruit or not, Matty does not see an attack on Eli coming. Russ and Bozer easily take care of whoever is following them, at least she thinks they do, until they turn up in the parking lot.</p><p>‘Cameras show an SUV matching the description of the one that tried to grab Eli, pulling into the lot right now’, Riley informs them over secure video link.</p><p>‘How did they find us so fast?’ Russ muses.</p><p>Riley is the first one to answer. ‘They would have to track us like we do. Have access to traffic cameras, CCTV’.</p><p>‘Right, well, I’ll distract them’, Russ volunteers.</p><p>Eli interrupts him. ‘Let me help, I have an idea’.</p><p>Matty looks at Bozer, a sense of déjà vu occurring.</p><p>‘Go for it’, Matty agrees, ignoring Russ’ concerned face.</p><p>Eli begins pulling apart their car as the unknown enemy start searching the lot.</p><p>‘I’m going to make a remote control car. Can I have your phone?’ Eli asks Bozer.</p><p>Bozer hands it over without protest. He’s so used to Mac asking for it, it doesn’t faze him anymore.</p><p>‘Maybe we need two Mac’s’, Russ says.</p><p>‘Can Mac make a self-driving car in under two minutes?’ Eli asks, smirking. He’s used to being the smartest person in the room.</p><p>‘Definitely’, Matty and Bozer answer in chorus.</p><p>This unsettles Eli slightly and Matty can see he’s getting nervous.</p><p>‘Breathe Eli. Focus on what you’re doing. Start with the basics’.</p><p>Eli calms and manages to get their decoy car up and running. As he crashes it, Bozer is busy hot wiring another vehicle, a skill he picked up from Riley.</p><p>Everything is going swimmingly, after a fashion, until they pull away. Russ is driving, with Matty in the passenger seat. Bozer and Eli are in the backseat as bullets start flying. Russ and Matty return fire, glass from the windows showering everyone.</p><p>Once they are far enough away from the action, everyone can take a breather. That’s when Eli starts shouting.</p><p>‘OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD’.</p><p>‘What?’ Matty asks as she turns around to face him, eyes going wide as she sees. ‘Russ, step on it, back to the Phoenix NOW. Eli… ELI’.</p><p>Eli stops panicking and looks at Matty.</p><p>‘I need you to put pressure on the wound. Use your hoodie. Yes, but you’re going to need to push harder than that’.</p><p>There is a small groan from the backseat.</p><p>‘Better. I want you to keep up that pressure and tap his face. He needs to stay awake’.</p><p>Matty opens the video link to Phoenix.</p><p>‘Riley. Alert Medical. Bozer has been shot in the shoulder. We are coming back now, ETA…’</p><p>‘Eight minutes’, Russ answers Matty’s look.</p><p>‘Eight minutes. I need everybody on standby’, Matty orders.</p><p>‘Got it Matty’, Riley says before signing off.</p><p>Matty turns her focus back to the patient. Bozer is in and out of consciousness, Eli repeatedly tapping his cheek in an effort to keep him awake.</p><p>‘Bozer. Don’t fall asleep. That’s an order and you don’t want to find out my punishment’, Matty says in her most authoritative voice.</p><p>Bozer’s eyes flutter and he manages to slur ‘Yes Ma’am’.</p><p>‘Good. Eli, know how to check a pulse?’</p><p>Eli nods and puts his other hand on Bozer’s wrist.</p><p>‘It’s fast’.</p><p>‘Alright, just keep your fingers there until we arrive. I want to know if it changes’.</p><p>Eli nods again, looking like a rabbit caught in headlights. This is not what he had planned for the day.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>MacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJack</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Russ is true to his word as they pull up to the Phoenix eight minutes later. The medics are quick off the mark, opening the back doors and pulling Bozer out onto a gurney. He hardly reacts to the movement and they know they need to act quickly.</p><p>Eli is relieved of his duties by one of the nurses and numbly follows on behind the gurney, Russ and Matty.</p><p>Dr Simpson, one of Matty’s newer hires is on duty. She’s glad. She poached him from the CIA. He’s a board-certified trauma specialist, something the Phoenix definitely needs, just sooner than Matty anticipated.</p><p>‘Right, let’s move him across. I want vitals right now and somebody get a couple of large bore lines in’, Dr Simpson says.</p><p>‘Bozer. Bozer, can you hear me? I’m Dr Simpson. You’re at the Phoenix. We’re going to take good care of you. I want you to try and stay awake’. Dr Simpson leans over Bozer and gets the smallest nod in response.</p><p>‘Alright, people. We need to move. Get an OR prepped. We are going now’.</p><p>Dr Simpson looks across at Matty before leaving. ‘Bullet is lodged in the shoulder. We’ll get it out and see how much damage there is. Looks like bone is intact, but there may be some nerve damage. Won’t know until we get in there’.</p><p>Matty nods as he goes. She’s forgotten Eli is there until he starts speaking.</p><p>‘So, you guys aren’t just a standard think tank then?’</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>MacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJackMacJack</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Bozer wakes up feeling like he’s floating on a warm cloud. Hearing is the first thing to return. He can hear the soft beeping of machines and quiet muttering from a voice he thinks he recognises. He must have moved or done something, as suddenly somebody is talking to him.</p><p>‘Bozer, come on. I know you’re awake. I’d really like it if you would open your eyes’.</p><p>Bozer knows that voice. Can only imagine what will happen if he doesn’t obey, so he slowly opens them. The light is blinding, and he has to shut his eyes before trying again. The room swims into focus. He is in Medical. The beeping machines now make sense, but he still has no idea why he’s in a bed. He looks down and finds Riley’s hand in his. He looks up at her.</p><p>‘Hey’, Riles says.</p><p>‘Hi’, Bozer replies, confusion written all over his face. ‘What happened?’</p><p>Riley smiles. ‘What do you remember?’</p><p>‘Er, Matty, Russ and I went to a science fair. Met this dude called Eli. Oh, he nearly got snatched by some really shady people, but we got away…’ Bozer stops, his mind still piecing things together. ‘I… I hotwired a car’, he says in excitement, ‘just the way you taught me!’ His excitement grows and he starts to move in the bed. ‘Ow’, he shouts.</p><p>‘Woah there cowboy. No moving. Dr Simpson will not be impressed if you undo all his good work’.</p><p>It feels like Bozer’s pain receptors have just come back online. There’s a stabbing pain, dulling to an aching throb in his left shoulder. It’s only then that his eyes leave Riley, taking in the bandaging and sling.</p><p>‘Oh, that’s new’.</p><p>‘I think someone is on the good drugs’, Riley teases. ‘You got shot Bozer during the getaway. Russ drove here as fast as he could, whilst Eli put pressure on your wound’.</p><p>Bozer looks up at her. ‘Eli? The science fair dude?’</p><p>‘The one and only’, comes a voice from the door. Eli is stood there. ‘Can I come in?’</p><p>‘Dude, from what I hear you stopped me from bleeding out. Of course, you can come in’. Bozer replies.</p><p>Eli shuffles into the room, not quite as confident as he was when he first met Bozer. ‘I didn’t really do much,’ he says, ‘I mean I just did as Matty told me’.</p><p>Riley smiles. ‘Well, I think you’ve learnt the first rule of the Phoenix then’, she pauses, ‘Never mess with Matty’.</p><p>‘I’m not sure I would dare’, Eli replies.</p><p>‘Ahh, you guys. She can be a pussycat’, Bozer tells them.</p><p>‘Mr Bozer, you better not have just called me a pussycat’. Matty enters the room, eyebrows raised.</p><p>‘Errrr…….’ Bozer seems to have lost the ability to talk and he wants to blame it on the pain meds. Riley wants to say something in Bozer’s defence but doesn’t dare, so instead she sits there trying not to laugh at him.</p><p>‘Eli, let’s talk job opportunities’. Matty says as she winks at Bozer and leaves the room, expecting Eli to follow.</p><p>‘Go, go’, Riley urges, flapping her hands at him. ‘Maybe you can meet the rest of the team later’.</p><p>‘Are the rest of the team here?’ Bozer asks, somewhat confused.</p><p>‘No. Mac’s meeting the parent’s, remember? Go to sleep, I’ll wake you later’. Riley whispers.</p><p>‘Thanks Riley’, Bozer replies, eyelids already closing as he looks forward to more sleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Just realised my dividers say MacJack, neither of whom are in this fic! Oh well, I like to keep to format!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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